Benchmarking: A Guide for Educators

Citation

Ruhul Amin, M. (2006), "Benchmarking: A Guide for Educators", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 542-544. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770610676335

While the quality of education in the US higher education system undoubtedly leads the world, the education in K through 12 grades admittedly demonstrated relative weakness in quality compared to many Asian and European nations. As a result, the issues of quality, quality standards, the measurement of quality and performance in the public education system have been a matter of concern in the socio‐political arena of the nation. The governmental responses to these issues in the form of subjecting institutions to a defined national standard (for measuring student competencies and performances at various grade levels for funding purposes) have been controversial and often led to partisan political rhetoric. Public schools and school districts in the nation under pressures of compliance have begun to embrace the business model of continuous improvement through benchmarking performance toward achieving world class standards.

However, as the culture of continuous improvement and the adoption of best practices through benchmarking are more readily accepted in the business community for competitive advantage, the public school system with their elective governance bodies and entrenched bureaucratic system find it quite difficult to change the traditional culture. Sue Tucker of the NETWORK, Inc. a consultant for the public education system for many years wrote this guidebook in nine sequential chapters as a step by step manual for the educators who have been contemplating “restructuring and reform.” The approach described in the book conforms to “peer benchmarking” or “competitive benchmarking” methodology. The intended readers are primarily the educators in the public institutions, an individual school or the school district in the nation. In author's own words, “This book provides step‐by‐step actions that improvement teams can take … ” (p. x). Each chapter of the book contains a purpose statement, limited background information on the step, a simple and illustrative exercise aimed at empirical understanding of the step.

In the first chapter (ten pages), the book provides an introduction of terms, concepts, benefits of benchmarking, and the existing methodologies of benchmarking drawing from the successes in the business world. The level of explanation in this chapter is generic and rudimentary with a focus on simple and empirical understanding of the concepts by an ordinary individual. In Chapter 2, under a catchy question or phrase, “Should your school begin benchmarking”, the author in seven pages discusses the experiences of benchmarking and continuous improvement in business organizations; the prerequisites that must be in place for benchmarking; a desirable time frame for a benchmarking study; the cost and logistical considerations; and the provision of some general resource guidelines. Again, the level of analysis in this chapter was also kept very simple. The third chapter consists of nine pages and dealt with the planning aspect of the benchmarking project. The author stressed such things as what to and what not to benchmark; selecting a benchmarking team; and writing a term of reference for the team.

Chapter 4 consists of 11 pages. The author describes the need to document current practices; establishing performance measures; and understanding of the current processes and the bottlenecks associated with them. The Chapter 5 consists of seven pages. It deals with the development of relevant criteria to be used in selecting a benchmarking partner (i.e. a peer). In brief statements, the need for conducting research to locate a partner, and once located, concluding an agreement with the same was emphasized. The Chapter 6 in seven pages deals with the mechanics of developing a questionnaire and a site visit guidelines. In this important segment, the author provides the likely contents of the questionnaire and the important logistical considerations for the site visit. In the Chapter 7, also in seven pages, the author discusses actions, Analyze‐Recommend‐Communicate. She highlights actions such as comparative analysis (relative to the peer institution) of data leading to the determination of performance gaps; and development of performance improvement ideas for the institutions. In the six pages of Chapter 8, the author discusses the need for developing an implementation plan. Establishing a structure with a mission to “Plan‐Do‐Check‐Act Cycle” through an action plan was also recommended. In the four pages of the concluding (Chapter 9) chapter, the author demonstrated the need for celebration of the success, recording of the process improvement, and the team recognition.

Sue Tucker wrote this book in a workshop format for an audience of educators in a commonsense language. The complex and technical vocabulary of the benchmarking study were carefully avoided. She has the background and understanding of the public educational system, the target readers of the book, and the political, administrative, and economic realities of the public schools. This book was probably the first of its kind to address benchmarking, best practices and continuous improvement in the public elementary through the secondary school system. The important strength of this book is that it takes the fear out of the reader of a perceived complex system of measurement methodology of benchmarking. The workshop format provides empirical grounding of concepts and methods. Another good aspect of the book is that it prepares the reader in the understanding of the logistical imperatives, the requirement of financial, the time, and the leadership commitments for a benchmarking study. Researching for a peer institution as a reference point for calculating performance gaps should be interesting to the target readers.

Making benchmarking simple and worthwhile for any organization is a noble but task. In many ways, Sue Tucker's book would appear to be too simplistic. It raises more questions of “how” in every step that she describes in the book. Neither does it deal with the complexities of measurement, nor does it provide examples. Within a little over a page, the author provides an overview of benchmarking methodology. In such a brief space, only certain pertinent questions that a benchmarking methodology should address were listed. One wonders how the educators would operationalize these questions and develop reliable and valid instruments. They would definitely need and seek assistance of the consultants or professionals in the absence of in‐house expertise of the proposed team. There is also no discussion about the composition of the benchmarking team or discussion of cases of success in locating a peer institution. The reader may also become puzzled in handling the action imperatives of Chapter 7 of the book. The author only affirms the need for analyzing the findings and confirming and articulating performance gaps. But how would these activities be accomplished? In an intuitive exercise of performance gap, the author asked the readers to use the performance measurement technique developed in Chapter 4. But in Chapter 4, the author asks the reader to develop a process chart of existing operation and analyzing the root causes of problems in the existing processes; but how should the reader do these activities? In exercise 4.1: establishing performance measures, the author implies gathering of subjective and global opinions to be listed on a flip chart – implying a sort of brainstorming exercise. Without quantifiable outcomes, attempting a comparative analysis toward establishing the performance gap is good for intuitive exercise and probably best for conceptual understanding but not practical and useful in quantitative analyses of any benchmarking study. In the absence of a discussion pertaining to a robust methodological model and empirical exercises, this guide may be treated as an orientation workshop rather than actual guide of benchmarking for best practices.